[5] After the event, officers commanded by Jimmy Keen, a lieutenant with the New Orleans Police Department, attempted to interview witnesses at school and their houses.
'"[8] It was eventually determined in court that Steven R. Williams[9] (no relation to Jonathan Williams) and James Tate committed the shootings, while Raymond Brown, Tyrone Crump, Herbert Everett, (a John McDonogh student) and Michelle Fulton (also a John McDonogh Student and girlfriend of deceased Smith) conspired in the killing.
The two killers were told that Williams conspired in the murder of Hillard "Head" Smith IV, a Joseph S. Clark High School student,[1] and Brown's cousin.
[4] Hillard Smith was found dead from gunshot wounds in front of an abandoned house on April 7, one week before Jonathan Williams died.
On October 30, a close friend of the Brown family died; 24-year-old Kenya Ambrose, a welder at an Avondale, Jefferson Parish shipyard, died at the 2300 block of St. Bernard Avenue three days after the killings of Bickham and Roosevelt Brown occurred; the location of Ambrose's death is within walking distance of Bickham's house.
(In Louisiana, current laws dictate that a second degree murder conviction equals a mandatory life imprisonment without possibility of parole or early release.
Crump and Raymond Brown made bail months prior to the sentencing and faced re-arrest due to a weapons charge.